When a hut's a shed

Blair Gibbs (Letters, 28 November) is wrong to suggest that youth justice policy is the preserve of the Youth Justice Board. Ministers are wholly responsible for policy relating to youth justice and the legislative framework within which it sits. The role of the YJB is to advise ministers based on our operational experience. Such policy includes an important government proposal, currently before parliament, that the cost of young people remanded in custody should be charged to local councils. Elected and accountable local authorities, with the statutory responsibility for services for children and young people, are the right bodies to ensure that young people are fully supported to stop offending.Frances DoneChair, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales

• The chancellor says that every household will "save £144 on petrol costs this year" (Report, 30 November) . Living in a household that cycles everywhere around town and uses public transport only for journeys of more than 12 miles, I would tend to disagree.Murray AbischLondon

• What George Osborne said can be summarised as: "The class war is over. And we've won." We shall see what history says.Simon SweetmanFelixstowe, Suffolk

• Pauline Neville-Jones (G2, November) is too modest – she should have talked more about her international wheeler-dealing with the likes of Slobodan Milosevic in 1996. It would have made a much more interesting article.Suzanne BosmanLondon

• Has Lucy Mangan abandoned her oft-stated northern roots (Shortcuts, G2, 1 December) by referring to a hut as a shed?Bill RedmayneChesterfield, Derbyshire